Meet 3 Women Who Make Fault In Our Stars Fandom Their Job

Not one that pays. But still.

Being a John Green super fan isn't just reading one of his books. And it's definitely not just seeing TheFault In Our Stars at the movie theater and crying all over yourself. When you are a Nerdfighter proper, you show some dedication. Here are three such women who have basically made part-time jobs out of loving John Green.

What does she do when she's not being a super fan?She is looking for a job. She just graduated about a month ago from Boston University; she studied film and TV, and wants to work on a set ASAP.

Who else runs the site?There are four administrators: two based in Europe, two in the U.S. They all met on Twitter, fanning out over YA. Because they are an international team, they can Tweet (they have 74,500 followers, including most of the TFiOS cast and crew) and post their content — junket interviews, magazine features, red carpet video, etc. — practically around the clock.

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Have they ever been in the same room together?No! Can you imagine? Katherine only just met her U.S. colleague last weekend, when they met up in New York City for a TFiOS panel at BookCon, a TFiOS appearance at an Apple store, and the TFIOS premiere itself, where they worked their very first red carpet.

Wow! What was the red carpet like?"Absolutely crazy," says Katherine. "I knew it was going to be crazy, but this was on another level." Fortunately, Fox (the studio) gave them a "very good spot" on the carpet. ~*fAnCy*~

Who did they talk to?Josh Boone (the director); Wyck Godfrey (producer); Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (the screenwriters, who are "really awesome"); Mike Birbiglia (who plays the group leader with "ball cancer"); Nat Wolff (Isaac; he's also "really awesome"); and SHAILENE WOODLEY.

What was it like to meet Shailene?"She hugged me."

WHAT? What did she smell like?"She smelled great. I think it was Joan Rivers who said that fashion labels say that they don't like lending out clothes to Shai because she doesn't use deodorant or something. I mean, it's Joan Rivers. But, no, she smells great. I think she smelled a little fruity or flowery or something."

What did she say?"I asked her what it was like working with Josh Boone. I also asked my fun question, which was awkwardly phrased, but, 'If you met your own personal Van Houten and he turned out to be like Van Houten, how would you react?' And she said she would give him a hug, which I would expect from Shai."

Did she cry watching the movie for a second time?"I did cry with some parts and not with other parts, but that was because I had an EW writer sitting right next to me, Sara Vilkomerson, so I was trying not to make a fool of myself. And I had just seen her because she did the moderating for the BookCon thing and I love Entertainment Weekly. So I was like, 'Oh my god, that's Sara."

What's an ordinary day like at her fan site "office"?It depends, but each administrator typically spends a couple of hours working on it per day. And they are on Twitter all the time. Literally.

Are there perks?If you count getting retweeted by people like John Green and Ansel Elgort a perk. So, yes, there are perks.

What's the most annoying thing about having to watch so many junket interviews?Reporters ask the same questions over and over again. "You could be asking so many more insightful questions. I would be asking some great questions!" (See above.)

What is the greatest lesson she learned from the book?"You don't have to be famous to lead an extraordinary life and leave your mark on the world. Leaving your mark on one person can mean just as much as leaving it on millions of people. It helps because you're not setting yourself up for disappointment. I think we're brought up thinking that we can be president of the United States, we can be on the next space shuttle — something huge and monumental. And while that could happen, it's not possible for that to happen to everybody. And I feel like it's good to have hope that you can do something that big, but it doesn't have to be some huge, big thing for it to be important."

What does she do when she's not being a super fan?Gardens. She is on medical leave from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute because she has chronic migraines.

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How did she get started on the site?She'd submit her art to the founder of the blog, Jay, who launched it in March 2012. In July 2013, Jay posted that she was looking for someone to help run the site. Enter Emma, who now manages the whole thing solo.

But, wait, where's Jay?She's not a Nerdfighter anymore! (It's okay, people grow out of things.) She and Emma are still friends, though. ("Definitely.")

What sort of art does Emma make?Mostly cross-stitches of Nerdfighter quotes or quotes from John Green's books. But the first thing she made was a friendship bracelet, her take on the Livestrong-esque bracelets sold by This Star Won't Go Out, a foundation created in the memory of Esther Earl. (For the uninitiated, Esther Earl was John's friend and the inspiration for The Fault In Our Stars.) Emma sells the bracelets on Etsy.

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Why is the Nerdfighter community so important to her?Because John Green wrote something in The Fault In Our Stars that was (unintentionally) the "most perfect" description she'd ever read of what her migraines feel like. (It's the scene where Hazel has to go to the hospital because she's deoxygenated.) "When I read that I started crying. It was like someone understood."

Has she ever met John Green?Yes! In Wellesley, Massachusetts, at a "tour de Nerdfighting" event."I was wearing the friendship bracelet that I made and he commented on it and I told him how much the book meant to me and he signed it; so did Hank [his brother and fellow vlogbrothers vlogger] and Hank's wife."

How many times has she read the book?Three. But "if you count audio" — which, why not? — four.

Will she see the movie?Most likely. "I can't really deal with loud noises and bright lights and stuff [due to her migraines], so I haven't gone to see a movie in a theater in the longest time. But I'm sort of willing to go there for The Fault in Our Stars. I'll just have to wear sunglasses in the move theater or something. DVD would work too."

"It looks like Hazel is drowning because there's water in her lungs or like Gus is in the clouds because he winds up dying, depending how you look at it," says Emma. "There had to be so much planning that went into this. It's too good not to share it everywhere."

There's a part in the book where Hazel says her BiPAP machine sounds like a dragon, and "this is how I pictured it," says Emma. "People are just really good at drawing things that I imagined, apparently."

What does she do when she's not being a super fan?Customer service at a tax company.

How did she get started writing fan fiction?It actually all began with Twilight. "I basically I wanted to write my own stories, but I wanted people to read them — and in writing Twilight fan fiction, you can [do that] and just give them Twilight names."

When did she write The Secret Land of Tears, then? In 2012, right after the book came out. In fact, that was the second book that she turned into fan fic, and the first piece of fan fic she actually completed. Today she writes mostly Twlight and Harry Potter fan fic and, actually, all of her storylines are about gay men. "I was thinking, Why don't I just write stories about homosexual people, who are just the same as everyone else, who have the same isuses in love and work and relationships" — but who are often written as stereotypes. (In case you're wondering why Jules writes about gay men only, she is a lesbian and feels like writing about women would be "too intimate." Fair enough.)

Back to FiOS: What's the plot of The Secret Land of Tears?A girl named Isobel meets Isaac — who is now friendless, as both Gus and Hazel have died — and she doesn't realize he's blind at first. Once she does realize, she treats him like he's a "normal" guy, and that's why he likes her. "I have this friend who stutters," Jules says, "and one of the things she hates is when she starts to stutter, and people fill in for her what she's going to say. It annoys the crap out of people who actually have the handicap, most of the time, to not be treated as complete human beings."

Why did she focus on Isaac?"I really felt that Isaac needed more than was in the book. He deserved a better ending than to have his best friend die and then probably another friend as well, very soon. Hazel was quite sick. It was clear from the book that she wasn't going to survive very long."

Is she happy with how her story turned out?"When I read it back now, it's so horrible. The last two chapters were a bit rushed." But there was good reason: She wanted to finish before meeting John Green at a Dutch and Belgian Nerdfighters group gathering in Amsterdam. "I finished it as fast as I could so I could turn it into an actual [bound] book and give it to him."

Did she give it to him?Yes! "I was actually chickening out — 'It's too horrible, I'm not gonna do it' — but my friend basically ripped it from my hands and walked over to him and said, "My friend wants to give you something." I was thinking he would just be like, 'Oh yeah, thanks,' and just put it on the pile of other things he'd gotten. But he didn't: He flipped through it and asked me to actually sign it. It was really sweet."

That must have been the best part of meeting him, right?Not even! He then gave her what seems to be a shout-out in a vlogbrothers video, around the 9:45 mark:

"A friend of mine called me and said, 'He just made a video and talked about your fan fiction!' He said he read it on the plane back and liked it. It was awesome."

Is she still writing fan fic?Yes! Four days a week for a few hours per day.

Will she see the TFiOS move?She wants to, but she can't promise she'll like it. "I love the book so much. I'm rather picky." Jules is awesome.